Tag: Beautiful BC

I love BC but it is time? …. I love the mountains that stay snow capped long into the summer. I love the ocean and how everyday it provides new and awaiting adventure. I love the forests, dense and left wild, bringing new life with each season. I love the look, the smells and the simplicity it all brings. But is it enough?

For all that I love of BC I equally love about my family I miss them more then ever before, maybe it the painful loss of Maggie that opened up emotions of love that I had long since let go dormant that makes me long to with them. Maybe it is this stage of aging that brings awareness for the need to have roots, to have structure, to find a new purpose or to make a long-term plan for future existence.

I can see walking hand and hand with my parents as they age through their years. Maybe its this vision that drives the need for me to be with them. I can see playing with my nephews’ kids as their lives begin to take root. I can see BBQ’s and snow filled evenings with my brother and sister in law as we plan a possible new adventure. But is it enough?

What holds me here in this place of beauty is the draw of nature and how tangible it is every day. What draws me back home is where family and roots may be waiting.

Perhaps the next hour, the day, the next moment will bring clarity and allow my two possible worlds to become one.

Blue skies with white cotton ball clouds, the warmth of the sun’s rays and a hint of chill in the wind to cool you in the shadows

The sounds of birds of every species singing out to their mates, on their newest finds. Carrying branches and bits of the forest to one another as they make their nests, just in time for offspring to hatch

The forest floor rustling with critters running and playing in the joy of the day. Even fish are jumping through the waters surface, just to take a look at the beauty of the moment

And the colours, so vibrant shades of green, altered only by the paint brush of nature.

Everything is new and fresh and exciting, anything and everything is possible

One strong breeze and everything can change . The wind topples the top of a tree, with a loud bang and a snap it falls to the forest floor, where it will decay and provide food for all things in nature or it will become the nursing branch, from which news saplings will grow

One strong breeze can move clouds at amazing speed. Creating cloud formations that are joyous to watch and opening up spaces for the sun to shine through, changing a cloudy forecast to a sunny spring awakening

One strong breeze creates a playground for eagles to practice their soaring skills building strength for their powerful explosive hunting dives

One strong breeze can change a calm ocean into ripples and waves carrying in sea life for other sea creatures to have life. Washing up debris on to ocean shores, nature’s way to self clean itself from things no longer needed

Then ever so softly the sun begins to nudge holes through the misty vapours and the earth begins to warm.

Shadows and sun beams find their way through dense woods and the forest floor seems to vibrate with movement.

The first chirps of birds as if freed from forced silence, squirrels give themselves permission to scurry and scavenge again and a woodpecker works feverishly boring holes in tree bark for fresh crawlers

The stillness of the moment is replaced with a flurry of commotion as nature carries on in it’s pursuit of existence

From the moment you see their neglected lane-ways, now covered with wild grass and weeds with only a hint of the paths that lead the family home each day…to that next moment, as your eyes are drawn to the byres and ranches that have long since been forgotten.

That feeling of wistfulness for a place that I never knew….

I can imagine when this place was full of life….

Hard working families and children with chores, who have risen with the first sign of dawn to tend to their animals and fields of plenty.

The family dog dutifully next to his master as he watches over his homestead, hands calloused, skin weathered and darkened through season after season, year after year of hardships and elation for the masterpiece of existence he has created.

I can imagine the home fires burning, smoke billowing out of stone hearth chimneys, dinner on the table as mama, the matriarch, calls her family home to her.

The laughter, telling of stories and adventures, everyone eager for their chance to share the happenings of their day, as the food that was harvested by the hands of the family is passed from one to another.

I can imagine as the children grew and began to pull from the roots that once grounded them, on to other quests, the draw of the city, the dream of something bigger or just different.

Their aging parents slowly letting pieces of their homestead whither and age in time with themselves. The animals and fields either passed on or sold off, the homestead no longer a homestead.

The barns have aged, sun, rain and years of weather have transformed them into productions of art. Stunning reminders of what they once were. Nature taking them back to the land

Those last fall days, when you are walking down trails that are covered in multi coloured pine needles and fallen leaves. With smells so intense you find yourself taking one deep breath after another, trying to capture every different scent deep within in your soul.

For me, this is my love of fall.

So quiet, just a whispering wind gently pulling leaves from trees crackling as they tumble down, enough to make you stop and listen in wonder of what is out there hidden the trees.

For me, this is my love of fall

A chill in the air, the sun giving off its last bit of heat before it cools for the winter. The distant scent of a wood fire burning and the laughter of children playing.